Fellow Wine Lovers,
It’s been a whirlwind folks.
There’s the whirlwind of wine-tastings that have seen us up late on several consecutive evenings.
The whirlwind of cold air that brought sweaters out of wardrobes and blew our a-board over.
The whirlwind of press coverage & regulation, Nobel prizes, kidnapped Prime Ministers and Bridget Jones.
We’re here to tell tales of wine, not wind…
Wine News
We’ve spoken here several times about the difficult vintage being experienced across France, hail, late harvest etc. We have also spoken with several of you about this idea of importing grapes and making wine in SW6.
Well this week news reaches us that the chaps in SW6 have had to change some of their plans because the contracted grapes are not ripening. Plans for Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux have become plans for Barbera from Piemonte.
What we still don’t understand is why you have to ship the grapes to SW6; surely moving the winemaker those 1500km is easier from a quality control point of view?
We filled a few gaps at the posher end of Italy this week. From Alto Adige we have Cantina Terlan’s flagship white in Nova Domus 2011 (£36.99). We’ve been fans of Cantina Terlan for a long while and frankly can’t explain why it’s taken us this long to list one.
Then slip along the shelf to Veneto and check out Amarone Della Valpollicella Classico Le Salette 2009 (£34.99). Some of you know that I have form for Amarone, so it’ll come as no surprise to discover I made a beeline for this at a recent tasting. A real velvet glove of a wine, I’m currently examining various Heath Robinson solutions to smuggle some home without Mrs Wayne noticing!
Finally, just to tickle your cockles we bought a new sweetie. We’d been chatting about it with our chum Mark for a while, but just hadn’t managed to taste it till two weeks ago. Oh-My-Word…Tschida Sämling Trockenbeerenauslese 2007 (£40 37.5cl) is a mouthful in more than just name. Rich concentrated fruit, floral aromas, a lush persistent sweetness kept perfectly in line with crisp, pure acidity, bringing elegance and a finish that lasted for most of the tube journey back from Westminster. I, for one, can see why Hans Tschida has been name International Wine Challenge’s “Sweet Winemaker of the Year” for the last 4 years in a row.
Windmill Market
Alex will be manning our stall from 10-2pm at St Marks Church Hall for this year’s last Windmill Market. Stop by and say hi if you’re there, I’m sure he’ll offer you a taste of something!
New Champagne & Sparkling Tasting Date
Our Champagne & Sparkling tasting sold out very quickly, and several of you have asked if we’ll do another date. Having examined the diary 8pm on Wednesday 27th November looks like a goer. Again it’ll be £25 per head so let us know if you’d like to attend.
Tasting this weekend
All this talk of new wine has got me going, we’ll taste a couple of newbies starting with Mezzogiorno Fiano 2012 (£8.69) a cracking mid-weight white from Puglia with nutty and limey citrus notes. Standing in the red corner will be Chateau Durandeau 2006 (£9.99) a lovely rounded Merlot dominant claret .
…and finally
We’ll be closing at 7.30 this evening as we’ll be conducting private off-site tasting, apologies.